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Halloween Countdown 2017, Day 1
Oct. 1st, 2017 05:28 amThank you for joining me for the twelfth year of my blog-a-thon celebration of Halloween. Let's get this countdown started!
Allow me to share a creepy moment (in what is a very creepy film) that has stuck with me ever since I first saw it.
The classic 1955 film The Night of the Hunter is a dark thriller starring Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, and Robert Mitchum, the latter in a brilliant performance as a corrupt preacher-turned-serial killer. Both the film and the novel on which it's based drew inspiration from the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murder of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
This was the only film directed by the great Charles Laughton, and it has a silent-film aesthetic that fits beautifully with its dark subject matter.
One of the most chilling moments to me appears with a child's lullaby, "The Pretty Fly," an original song composed for the film by Walter Schumann. The song is sung as the children are fleeing for their lives from their would-be killer; while the lyrics tell of a pretty fly, the visuals focus on creatures that devour flies (spiders, frogs, etc.). This short little scene feels desperate and ominous in all the right ways. The effect is, to me, singularly spooky.
So here, enjoy a little earworm to open your Halloween season.
Allow me to share a creepy moment (in what is a very creepy film) that has stuck with me ever since I first saw it.
The classic 1955 film The Night of the Hunter is a dark thriller starring Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, and Robert Mitchum, the latter in a brilliant performance as a corrupt preacher-turned-serial killer. Both the film and the novel on which it's based drew inspiration from the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murder of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
This was the only film directed by the great Charles Laughton, and it has a silent-film aesthetic that fits beautifully with its dark subject matter.
One of the most chilling moments to me appears with a child's lullaby, "The Pretty Fly," an original song composed for the film by Walter Schumann. The song is sung as the children are fleeing for their lives from their would-be killer; while the lyrics tell of a pretty fly, the visuals focus on creatures that devour flies (spiders, frogs, etc.). This short little scene feels desperate and ominous in all the right ways. The effect is, to me, singularly spooky.
So here, enjoy a little earworm to open your Halloween season.